Pyramid Healthcare opened their facility in Bald Eagle on August 26 and the uproar hasn\u2019t slowed down.
\nAt last month\u2019s meeting of the Tyrone School Board of Directors, Bald Eagle residents posed questions to the Board about the contract that was made with Pyramid Healthcare.
\nYesterday, Dr. William Miller, Superintendent of Schools gave The Daily Herald a copy of the School District\u2019s responses.
\nThe availability of the minutes from Board meetings were called into question. In her comments to the board, a Snyder Township resident asked that the Board Minutes are made public within three to five days after the meeting.
\nAccording to the written response the School district replied, \u201cThe widespread practice under \u2018Robert\u2019s Rules of Order\u2019 is that the minutes are reviewed at the opening of the next meeting and after corrections, are publicly pproved by the Board. Minutes are not made available to the public until after the Board amends and approves them.\u201d
\nOne resident said the minutes are incomplete. \u201cBased on the copy of the minutes of the last Board meeting made available last week, it was found to be incomplete. A group of concerned citizens from Snyder Township were present at that meeting and voiced their opinions regarding Pyramid Greentree Village and not a single word of these conversations appeared in the minutes.\u201d
\nThe District responded, \u201cThe Sunshine Act simply requires the substance of the Board\u2019s business be recorded. At a minimum, this would require recording all motions, both substantive and procedural, including who made and seconded each motion and the eventual resolution, as well as the names of citizens who spoke officially and the subject of their testimony.\u201d
\nHelen Mengel asked for a copy of the Due Diligence Process.
\nThe District replied with this research that was done.
\n\u2022 Visitation to the Clearfield facility in February and March.
\n\u2022 Administrative meeting with Pyramid personnel to discuss details of educational program, therapeutic component of services and cost of services.
\n\u2022 Compared services and cost to other facilities.
\n\u2022 Generated list of positive aspects of the program. (Including: Process for transitioning students back to the District, Strong therapeutic services, Highly qualified staff, Opportunity for students to participate in field trips and outdoor educational activities, Work collaboratively with District personnel, Provide continuous feedback on student progress, cost effective, flexibility and priority of student placement.
\n\u2022 Informal meetings with School Board in May, 2002.
\n\u2022 In June 2002, information sent via \u2018Board bulletin\u2019 to School Board regarding Pyramid services, etc.
\n\u2022 Confirmation of placement location and opening of facility in August, 2002.
\nEd Schenck, requested information on several additional topics.
\nSchenck in a written letter to the Board asked for a copy of the request for quatation or bid (or equivalent) which includes the date, the services requested, timing\/schedule for starting, when quatations are due, etc.
\nThe District\u2019s reply was: \u201cSection 807.1 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code requires that all furniture, equipment, textbooks, school supplies and other appliances for the use of the public school, costingten thousand dollars ($10,000) or more shall be purchased by the Board of Directors only after due advertisement. Written or telephonic price quotations from at least three qualified and responsible vendors shall be requested by the Board of School Directors for all purchases of supplies exceeding four thousand ($4,000) but are less than the amount requiring advertisement and competitive bidding. Services are not required to be bid or quoted.\u201d
\nSchenck asked how $50,000 in annual cost savings that Dr. Miller indicated to us on August 13, 2002 calculated?
\nThe District replied, \u201cDuring the 2001-02 school year, the District had six students placed in programs at neighboring Districts (Hollidaysburg and Centre County). The tuition cost for these students averaged $87.23 per day and transportation totaled $20,352.19. The daily tuition cost for these students to attend Pyramid at the Greentree facility for 2002-03 for the $24.90 for regular education and $76.00 for Special education students. There is no cost for transportation.\u201d
\nScnenck asked if the contract compliance was met on August 26, 2002 and for a copy of the monthly billing statement.
\nThe District responded that the contract was reviewed and approved by the District solicitor on August 12, 2002 and there has not been a bill from Pyramid Healthcare to date.
\nThe School Board will hold its work session September 30, 2002 and their Board meeting on October 8, 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pyramid Healthcare opened their facility in Bald Eagle on August 26 and the uproar hasn\u2019t slowed down. At last month\u2019s meeting of the Tyrone School Board of Directors, Bald Eagle residents posed questions to the Board about the contract that was made with Pyramid Healthcare. Yesterday, Dr. William Miller, Superintendent of Schools gave The Daily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}